The present invention relates to a hybrid electric vehicle testing method and a hybrid electric vehicle testing system, and particularly, to a testing method of and a testing system for testing a drive system and a control system of a hybrid electric vehicle (hereafter sometimes simply called xe2x80x9chybrid vehiclexe2x80x9d) which is run under integrated control of an engine and an electric motor.
In recent years, hybrid vehicles have been developed, which run under integrated control of both an engine and an electric motor. These hybrid vehicles contribute to savings in energy resources and protect the environment. In a hybrid vehicle, switching is performed between the engine and an electric motor in accordance with various actions, such as starts, accelerations, constant-speed running, decelerations, and stops, and regenerative braking is used to store the energy of deceleration, thereby providing a great improvement in fuel economy and a reduction in exhaust emissions.
For such hybrid vehicles, testing is performed, not only at the manufacturing stage, but also for the purpose of maintenance. However, there has not been a method nor a system developed for performing tests of the complex drive system and control system of such a hybrid vehicle.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a testing method of and a testing system for testing a hybrid vehicle, whereby a variety of tests are performed on a drive system and a control system of the vehicle while it is in a simulated running condition.
To achieve the object, an aspect of the invention provides a testing method of testing a hybrid electric vehicle which runs under integrated control of an engine and an electric motor for run and which includes drive and control systems therefor, the testing method comprising having the vehicle running on a stationary running tester, acquiring first data on the running vehicle by access to sensors in the vehicle and second data on the running vehicle by measurements thereto at the tester, and analyzing the first and second data to inspect the drive and control systems.
Another aspect of the invention provides a testing system for testing a hybrid electric vehicle which runs under integrated control of an engine and an electric motor for run and which includes drive and control systems therefor, the testing system comprising: a stationary running tester for the vehicle to run thereon, a first data acquisition system to acquire first data on the vehicle running on the tester by access to sensors in the vehicle, a second data acquisition system to acquire second data on the running vehicle by measurements thereto at the tester, and an analysis system to analyze the first and second data for an inspection of the drive and control systems.
According to the above-noted aspects, a hybrid electric vehicle is placed in a simulated running condition on a stationary running tester that may be a chassis dynamometer, sensors in the running vehicle are accessed to acquire firs data thereon as vehicle-end data, measurements are made to the running vehicle to acquire second data thereon as tester-end data, and the first and second data are analyzed for an inspection to make a decision on a conformity of drive and control systems of the vehicle.
Accordingly, it is allowed, for example, to perform a test of a drive distribution ratio between an engine and an electric motor for run, to achieve a quantitative evaluation of drivability for the vehicle to run, or to estimate or predict running efficiencies of the electric motor and a battery, a control efficiency of regenerative braking, a battery discharge efficiency, an auxiliary equipment drive control condition, an engine startup control condition, or a fuel consumption, thereby facilitating improvements in hybrid vehicle quality and maintenance.